1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigerator which is capable of controlling an amount of cool air supplied to a refrigerating chamber independently of a freezing chamber.
2. Description of the Background Art
Generally, a refrigerator is provided with an inner space including a refrigerating chamber and a freezing chamber partitioned by an partition wall. In this case, the freezing chamber is maintained at a low temperature so as to keep stored goods such as food in the frozen state. Also, the refrigerating chamber keeps food fresh, but the food is not maintained in the frozen state.
Hereinafter, a related art refrigerator will be described with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a frontal cross section view of illustrating a flow of cool air in a related art refrigerator.
As shown in FIG. 1, a related art refrigerator 10 is provided with a freezing chamber 20 and a refrigerating chamber 30 which are divided by an partition wall 40. Also, a cool-air inlet 24 is provided at a lower portion of the freezing chamber 20. In this case, stored food is cooled as cool air circulates in the freezing and refrigerating chambers 20 and 30. By cooling the stored food, the temperature of the cool air increases. Then, the cool air of the increased temperature is drawn through the cool-air inlet 24.
Also, an evaporator 23 is provided above the cool-air inlet 24, wherein the evaporator 23 exchanges heat with the cool air having the increased temperature after cooling the food. Additionally, a fan 22 is provided above the evaporator 23. The fan 22 sends the cool air passed through the evaporator 23 to the freezing and refrigerating chambers 20 and 30, wherein the cool air has a lowered temperature as it passes through the evaporator 23.
As the fan 22 is operated, the cool air is supplied to the freezing and refrigerating chambers 20 and 30 through a cool-air duct 21. Further, to guide the cool air toward the cool-air duct 21 of the freezing chamber 20, there is provided a guide (not shown). Also, the fan 22 is provided inside the guide.
Additionally, the evaporator 23 and the fan 22 are provided in the freezing chamber 20. The refrigerating chamber 30 has no additional evaporator and fan.
In the meantime, the cool-air duct 21 is provided above the fan 22, so that the cool air having the low temperature passed through the evaporator 23 is supplied to the inside of the freezing chamber 20. The cool-air duct 21 is provided with a plurality of cool-air outlets 21a to supply the cool air to the inside of the freezing chamber 20. At this time, the cool-air duct 21 may be formed as the singular number along a rear wall (not shown) of the freezing chamber 20.
Also, another cool-air duct 31 is provided in the refrigerating chamber 30. Further, the cool-air duct 31 of the refrigerating chamber 30 is provided in communication with the cool-air duct 21 of the freezing chamber 20. Even further, the cool-air duct 31 is provided as the singular number along a rear wall (not shown) of the refrigerating chamber 30. The cool-air duct 31 of the refrigerating chamber 30 is provided with a plurality of cool-air outlets 31a to supply the cool air to the inside of the refrigerating chamber 30.
The process of supplying the cool air to the freezing chamber 20 and the refrigerating chamber 30 in the above-mentioned refrigerator 10 will be explained as follows.
During operation of the refrigerator 10 having the above-mentioned structure, a compressor (not shown) is operated so that the evaporator 23 becomes cool. After the food stored in the refrigerator 10 is cooled by the generated cool air, the temperature of cool air is increased. Thus, the evaporator 23 makes the heat exchange with the cool air of the increased temperature, so that the temperature of cool air is lowered. According as the fan 22 is operated by a motor (not shown), the cool air of the low temperature circulates in the inside of the freezing chamber 20.
That is, after the cool air of the increased temperature is drawn through the cool-air inlet 24 formed in the lower portion of the evaporator 23, the temperature of cool air is lowered due to the heat exchange of the evaporator 23 as the cool air passes through the evaporator 23. Then, the cool air of the low temperature is drawn to the fan 22 through an orifice (not shown), and most of the cool air is supplied to the freezing chamber 20 through the cool-air duct 21 and the cool-air outlet 21a provided in the freezing chamber 20.
Meanwhile, some of the cool air is drawn to the cool-air duct 31 of the refrigerating chamber 30 through a cool-air pipeline (not shown), and is then supplied to the refrigerating chamber 30 through the cool-air outlet 31a. 
Therefore, when repeating the above-mentioned flow of cool air, the inner space of the freezing chamber 20 and the refrigerating chamber 30 becomes cool.
However, the related art refrigerator 10 has the following disadvantages.
In the related art refrigerator 10, the evaporator 23 and the fan 22 are provided only in the freezing chamber 20. However, the additional evaporator and fan are not formed in the refrigerating chamber 30. Thus, it is impossible to control the amount of cool air supplied to the refrigerating chamber 30 independently of the freezing chamber 20.
In the meantime, it is impossible to separately perform the cooling function of the freezing chamber 20 and the refrigerating chamber 30. That is, some of cool air supplied to the freezing chamber 20 is supplied to the refrigerating chamber 30, whereby an odor of the freezing chamber 20 is mixed with an odor of the refrigerating chamber 30. That is, the odor of food stored in the freezing chamber 20 is mixed together with the odor of food stored in the refrigerating chamber 30.
Also, some of the cool air generated from the evaporator 23 is supplied to the freezing chamber 20 by the fan 22, and the remaining is then supplied to the refrigerating chamber 30. As a result, the amount of cool air supplied to the refrigerating chamber 30 is smaller than the amount of cool air supplied to the freezing chamber 20, so that a cooling speed of the refrigerating chamber 30 becomes slow. That is, a temperature variation increases in the refrigerator 10.
Even though the temperature of any one of the freezing chamber 20 and the refrigerating chamber 30 reaches a preset value, the compressors and the fans for the freezing and refrigerating chambers 20 and 30 are operated together until both the freezing and refrigerating chambers are maintained in the preset value, thereby causing the waste of power consumption.
Furthermore, the cool-air ducts 21 and 31 are respectively provided in the freezing and refrigerating chambers 20 and 30. Thus, it is impossible to vary the cool-air outlets 21a and 31a of the cool-air ducts 21 and 31 in number and size, and to provide a plurality of cooling chambers for a special purpose.